Rob Astorino on Civil Rights

Opposes gay marriage, but it's a non-issue

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is using his first major TV ads of this campaign to try to brand his Republican opponent, Rob Astorino, as an extreme conservative. A review of Astorino's public positions shows that while his anti-abortion stance, and his opposition
to Cuomo's gun control law and to gay marriage aren't in step with most of the blue state, his views are shared by sizable minorities of New Yorkers.

Astorino, four years after Cuomo soundly beat the more unabashedly conservative Carl Paladino, has
taken a more pragmatic approach to the hot-button issues than Paladino, trying to stake out nuances in his positions that could snare larger segments of voters.

But one state Republican Committee member said any claims that Astorino is an extremist is
"a laughably inaccurate comment. He just won re-election in a Democratic county with a 2-1 Democratic enrollment."

Astorino argues that abortion and gay marriage are non-issues ginned up by Cuomo and the Democrats to energize their larger voter bloc.

Opposes gay marriage, but it's the law of the land

As for gay marriage Astorino opposed it. But he said he won't try to erode the 2011 law. "Quite frankly, it was done the right way: through the legislature,"
Astorino said. "It was not done by a judge. That's the law of the land and I respect that."

[Although Cuomo portrays Astorino as an extremist in TV ads, one pundit] said Astorino can't objectively be seen as ultraconservative or an extremist: "If you talking about south of the Mason-Dixon Line,
Astorino is a flaming liberal. Is he an extremist? I would say certainly not in temperament, but I don't think in policy, either."

People from the Bronx drive up costs in Westchester

Democrats in Westchester County are knocking GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rob Astorino for remarks he made about illegal immigrants driving up the cost of services. Astorino, in a 2009 appearance on News 12 in Westchester, suggested undocumented immigrants
and "people who are moving in from the Bronx" are driving up the cost of county services.

The video was distributed by the "Astorino Truth Squad"--a group who have been serving as a rapid response team. For now, the Democrats on the local level are
working as surrogates as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stayed largely above the politically fray at least publicly.

Cuomo earlier teased Republicans for a potential primary: "It's unfortunate that Mr. Astorino has chosen to vilify the hard-working residents of
the Bronx and speak of them as something less than their neighbors in Westchester. I have found that the best path to progress is by celebrating diversity, not insulting one another or pitting New Yorkers against one other."